Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) has organised week-long coaching and officiation courses for athletics and netball in Phalombe in a bid to develop the sport in the district.
The council’s sports development officer Ruth Mzengo said the course, which started on Monday at Phalombe Secondary School, will wind up tomorrow and was organised after noticing that local coaches and technical officials were lacking skills.
“Sports Council was invited by honourable Mary Mpanga MP [member of Parliament] for Phalombe South to the finals of her football and netball trophies in her constituency sometime back. I attended on Council’s behalf and observed that the district is doing well in football but after watching the netball finals, I felt they needed help in terms of coaching as well as officiation,” Mzengo said.
She said athletics was included in the course because it is the foundation for all sporting disciplines.
“We added athletics to the programme because it will help revamp practice of athletics in the district and give opportunity to provide a variety of sporting activities to the youth of Phalombe,” she said.
MNCS is also optimistic that such courses will encourage sports in the district as it helps to develop coaching as well as athletes.
National netball coach Griffin Saenda, who is in charge of the netball course, applauded Sports Council for holding the coaching course in a rural area.
“We need such courses right in the rural areas for us to develop the sport,” he said.
Southern Region Athletics Committee chairperson MzeeMakawa said the athletics course participants would benefit a lot as it is conducted by a highly qualified trainer Ephraim Mzengo who is also Fifa physical fitness instructor.
“The course is for both beginners and a refresher to others and we expect that they will be able to sharpen their skills to develop the sport in the rural areas,” he said.
In netball 48 participants are attending the course while 40 have been drawn from athletics. n
